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Quote by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Work

A Few Figs from Thistles

This literary work compiles a variety of narratives and reflective pieces that delve into the complexities of human experience, examining the interplay between individual development and broader social transformations. more

Author

Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

American poet, known for her lyrical and free verse poetry. Her poems are characterized by their deep portrayal of nature, love, and the female experience. Millay won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, becoming the first woman to receive the award. more

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“The Shadow on the Stone I went by the Druid stone That stands in the garden white and lone, And I stopped and looked at the shifting shadows That at some moments there are thrown From the tree hard by with a rhythmic swing, And they shaped in my imagining To the shade that a well-known head and shoulders Threw there when she was gardening. I thought her behind my back, Yea, her I long had learned to lack, And I said: “I am sure you are standing behind me, Though how do you get into this old track?” And there was no sound but the fall of a leaf As a sad response; and to keep down grief I would not turn my head to discover That there was nothing in my belief. Yet I wanted to look and see That nobody stood at the back of me; But I thought once more: “Nay, I’ll not unvision A shape which, somehow, there may be.” So I went on softly from the glade, And left her behind me throwing her shade, As she were indeed an apparition— My head unturned lest my dream should fade.”

PoetryLossGrief
Book:Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses
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“That fall, after the summer when they both died, she and my father, there was a point when I wanted to say to them, All right, you have died, I know that, and you've been dead for a while, we have all absorbed this and we've explored the feelings we had at first, in reaction to it, surprising feelings, some of them, and the feelings we're having now that a few months have gone by--- but now it's time for you to come back. You have been away long enough.”

Grief
Book:Can't and Won't
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